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US drone strike kills top Al-Shabaab leader in Somalia

Monday, February 2, 2015

By Yassin Juma

MOGADISHU (AA) – A top leader of the Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab movement and some movement members were killed on Saturday in a strike believed to be carried out by a U.S. drone, a Somali official has said.

Ahmed Adan said the strike targeted a convoy of Al-Shabaab top leaders near Dinsoor, a town in the southwestern Bay region of Somalia.

"I have confirmation from the ground that several Al-Shabaab militants and a top leader have been killed in the airstrike," Adan, a Bay region official, told The Anadolu Agency.

"They were in several vehicles heading to a training camp, not far from Dinsoor," he added.

The name of the Al-Shabaab leader targeted as part of the convoy was not immediately known.

Adan said, however, that the training camp and two Dinsoor houses were also targeted by the strike.

Dinsoor is one of the few remaining urban centers still controlled by Al-Shabaab, which has been battling the government of Mogadishu for several years now.

On Sept. 2, 2014, a U.S. drone attack killed Al-Shabaab leader Ahmed Godane, and as the year ended, Al-Shabaab's intelligence chief, Abdi Tahliil, was also killed by another drone attack.